Harness the Power of the Internet

The internet is a vast world of information. It's all at our fingertips, but it can be overwhelming if you don't know how to find what you're looking for. Here are some tools to help you navigate this web universe.

Power up Google Searches: We've all been there. You want to search for something on Google but can't think of how to refine your search so that you don't end up with too many unrelated results. How do you achieve the perfect Google search? Here are 10 tips to get you started:

There are even more Google search tips here. In my class, I am introducing a new Google search tool each week, and letting the students practice. I also plan to make a poster of some of the most useful search tools that they can reference throughout the year - one of my projects for the summer.

Wolfram|Alpha: This site is crazy!

Taken from the Wolfram|Alpha Site

Check out what this engine can do...

I mean, why do any actual thinking on your own anymore? Just kidding. 😉 I can see this as being most useful in secondary education, especially in higher-level math and science.

Searching for Copyright-free images: The internet is FULL of images, but most of these images are protected by copyright, so you can't just go copying and pasting all willy nilly. Then, how do you know which images you can use, and which you can't? Watch this video that I made for my students for help finding ok-to-use images on Google.

Searching for Images in a Google Doc: To save you even MORE of your precious time, Google has made finding safe images even easier within Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings. When you are creating a new Doc, Slide or Drawing, first...

Then,

From there, you can choose the image type and main color (if you’re looking for clipart of a red house, for example), and insert your image. All of the images provided are already labeled for personal or commercial use, so you don’t have to worry about copyright issues.  It’s super easy and quick. Enjoy!

Wasn't that easy? I love that students can do this and not have to worry about usage rights. That's a time saver in my book. 

I hope this post made you feel more powerful, or at the very least, a little more knowledgeable about how to search the sea of information. Happy searching!

Social Media in the Classroom

The count is on... 19 days left of school here in my neck of the woods! I cannot believe that summer break is almost here. This year has flown by! My students are super excited, too, which is why it's even more important to find ways to keep them engaged until the very last day of learning. My fourth graders LOVE to use tech, and anytime I can make it more like "big kid" stuff, that's a big bonus. 

Social Media benefits and risks:

In past blog posts, I have blogged about Edmodo, Pinterest, Twitter, and Diigo so I will touch on Padlet and Symbaloo this week.

Padlet: I have used Padlet a few times in my classroom, and I love it. It's a really easy and quick way for students to share information with the class. Below are some that I have used in my classroom.

We made this Padlet at the beginning of the year. I had students brainstorm all of the norms that they want to see in our classroom. Then we talked about each of them, combined some, generalized others, and whittled it down to five "Classroom Rules" for our poster. This way, the students felt they all had a say in what our class norms would be!

The students took pictures of idioms and used context clues to figure out their meanings. They had a lot of fun taking pictures with the iPads! 

Students are working in pairs to research a state and make a commercial inviting others to visit their state. We used this Padlet for students to post three or more fun facts about their state. 

Padlet makes adding to the board very easy through a shareable link or QR code. I used the QR code to share these boards with students, but the link would be very useful for a virtual classroom or email. We have used Padlet as a staff to share out what we learned from some reading that we did in a jigsaw format. They can be used anonymously or have names so that student have accountability. I love the versatility of Padlet!

Symbaloo: Symbaloo is a very easy-to-use bookmarking tool. Each "board" you make is called a "webmix." Our district has a few set up for teachers and for students. They are quick to make, and once you share them, you can continue to update the links that you have on your Symbaloo webmix. It's cloud-based so you can access it anywhere. I have this one set up for my students to use at school or at home. They can even access it over the summer to practice some of those skills that otherwise would be lost over a long break. As you can see from mine, you can color-code and group together certain links to make it easier to use. You can embed your Symbaloo on your class website, within your virtual classroom, or set as the home screen on your classroom computers. Within the site, you can search for already-made webmixes to get even more ideas of what to share with your students. You can make them for other teachers in the building, for parents, or for students (for one topic, or the whole school year!). There are many different uses for this cool tool. 

There are so many great social media tools out there to use with students. Just remember to be safe, and err on the side of caution. My rule of thumb is that if I have to ask if something is OK to post - it's probably not. 

Time Management and Organization

"If I could save time in a bottle..." -Jim Croce

If only we could! Time doesn't seem to like to slow down when I need it to, unfortunately. Anything that helps me save and organize my time is very welcome! Here are some tools that do just that.

Flippity: Talk about time savers! Check out Flippity. This tool is amazing! Flippity is a Google Sheets add-on. It includes templates for games, flashcards, name pickers and more using spreadsheets that you create. I learned about it at the beginning of the week and immediately started using it in my classroom. We've made vocabulary flashcards already and I've grouped students in an instant a few times. Here's a little about the add-on and how to make flashcards in Flippity:

Since this video was made, 3 more templates have been added, Bingo, Crossword Puzzle, and Tournament Bracket.  I also noticed something pretty cool with the random name picker when I moved students from pairs to groups of four. As long as I didn't shuffle the names, the pairs stayed together and combined with another pair to make a group of four. That's pretty handy for great discussions in class! Visit Flippity and play around to see what is useful to you for your classroom!

Remember the Milk: This is a beneficial app that you can use across all of your devices to send yourself reminders. It's simple and quick to set up, and you will get a notification on your phone or tablet if you allow them. You can share reminders with others, too. This is an excellent tool to send reminders to a spouse! RTM has the ability to create labels for your reminders, as well as lists.

One snag I hit while experimenting with RTM was how to add a due time. It's not easily accessible, which is a bit annoying, truly. So, I thought I'd share it with you so that you don't have to spend forever figuring it out, too. You're welcome. :)

I still prefer Google Keep for to-do lists (more on that here), but I may use RTM just for reminder notifications. 

Doodle: Don't you just LOVE cluttering up your email inbox with messages between several people trying to find a time to get together that works for everyone? No? Doodle has the solution! 

Lesson Planning: If you're a teacher looking for a quick way to find fun lessons for your classroom, try my favorites:

• Teachers Pay Teachers
• Learn Zillion
• SMART Exchange

I also created an Adobe Page with much of the same info:

These tools are bound to save you a ton of time, even if you still can't bottle it!

Google Tools... Again

I just returned from Boston for the MRA (Massachusetts Reading Association) "For the Love of Literacy" conference. It was Ah-mazing, and we learned a ton. I also can't wait to get back to Boston just for fun to explore the historical city. There was so much more I wanted to do! Back to reality with only 29 days of school left before summer break - (but who's counting?!) Honestly, after a conference like that, I almost wish it was August so I would have all year to implement some of the new ideas I have. I guess we'll just dip our toes in, and I'll dive in deeper with next year's fourth graders.

This week in my class, I revisited my best tech friend - Google! It's no lie. I'm in love with Google. Just head back to my posts from this January and February, and you'll see more of this girl gushing over Google. Here are some more features to adore:

LucidPress:
This is an extremely helpful app I use though Google Chrome. Lucid Press lets you create posters, brochures, flyers, invitations and more that you can print or share digitally. There are also templates for creating social media posts. I have used Lucid Press to make expectation posters for the alternative seating in my classroom. My students will be using it to create promotional brochures for a state they are researching. There are templates for “behavior bucks” for classroom incentives, rubrics, syllabus, exit tickets, lesson plans, name tags, and more! Check out my header image for this blog post. I created it on Lucid Press!

Google Forms:

I have blogged about Google Forms in the past, but this app has been SO helpful in my classroom this year, that I have to shout my praises again. As teachers, time savers are a MUST. My grade level departmentalizes, which means that I have three classes of students for reading. That's 80 quizzes and test to grade every time! Yikes! If I make the assessments in a Google Form, it's quick for the students to take, uses no paper, and is graded instantly for me! That's a whole lot of win in my book! Here's a recent quiz I made that students will be taking next week. How well will you do?

Figurative Language Quiz

Here is my previous blog post that touched on Google Forms: Ode to Google Drive

Google Drawings:

I have mentioned Drawings before, but haven't gone into much depth. Drawings are useful in many areas of education. Here are some ideas:

I have used Google Drawings mostly for making graphic organizers like this one:

This graphic organizer can now be printed onto paper or used in a Google Slides presentation for students to record and study new vocabulary words. Now, that's super!

I'm sure I've made it abundantly clear that I love Google, and I plan to for a long time to come. 

Now, it's back to the classroom on Monday to let the kids all know how "Wicked Smaht" I am now after my conference in Boston!

Edmodo vs Schoology

This week, I tried out two Learning Management Systems (LMS). I'll admit, I was a little out of my comfort zone. I try to integrate digital learning with my students often, but I hadn't jumped into the world of a virtual classroom... yet. Both Edmodo and Schoology are free learning platforms that are simple to set up. I checked them both out to decide which one I want to implement for myself!

Edmodo:
Edmodo is the LMS that has been used by my school district, so it was the one I was most familiar with. My own children have used it with some of their teachers. So, naturally, it was the one I gravitated towards first. This video gives you an idea of what you can do with Edmodo:

As you can see, it's a pretty sweet tool for teachers, and students seem to really enjoy it. It can, however, be fairly time-consuming to get it started, and I'm still getting used to the organization of it all. That is the most difficult part for me. I don't feel that it's completely intuitive, but it's not too hard to figure out if you already understand basic digital folder systems.

Schoology:

Schoology was completely new to me before this week. Despite it being around since 2007, I hadn't even heard of it! Just like Edmodo, it's a virtual classroom where teachers and students can communicate and collaborate. 

This video really got me excited to try out Schoology. I initially thought I'd like it better than Edmodo because it seemed like it could do more. While playing around by adding files and creating lessons, however, I found it to be less user-friendly.  There seems to be a bit more of a learning curve with Schoology.

Bonus:
There is one more platform that I'd love to play around in, and that's Google Classroom. It's no secret that I love me some Google, and I feel like this might be the right fit for me. Unfortunately, I don't have access to it through my school Google account, so that will have to wait. Luckily, thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, I found a review that compared all three LMS!

Taken from MyELearningWorld.com. Check the site for more detailed comparisons.

My instructor shared this post about Google Classroom, too.

Currently, in my classroom, we use shared folders in Google Drive to organize digital work. I have a classroom shared folder that is "view only" where I post assignments, rubrics, class lists, interesting links, the weekly newsletter, etc. I also have individual shared folders with editing rights for each of my students. This is where they turn in their work, and I post their graded rubrics. I give them tests using Google Forms, and they present information using Google Slides and Docs. We use so much Google in my class, that I'm sure a transition to Google Classroom would be seamless - if only I had access! 

For now, I plan to tinker a bit more with Edmodo. Who knows? I may end up loving it, and jump full-force into it this fall. For me, new tech is not scary, (I LOVE learning about and playing with technology) but for some reason picking and using an LMS is proving difficult for me. Here's hoping it's easier for you!

ABCDEFG... PLNs for You and Me!

Yes, I was a cheerleader.

Education, like many other professions, has a multitude of acronyms that are specific to the field. Teachers spout off letters like IEP, SPED, GE, OT & PT, SLP, ESOL, and ASD. But perhaps one of the most important is the PLN or Personal Learning Network. This is the one acronym to understand them all.

The following video will explain what a PLN is, and why you should have one:

This week, I explored a few PLNs. Some were brand new to me, and others I was already using but hadn't looked at them as PLNs yet. 

Diigo:

Prior to this week, I had never heard of Diigo, but I can tell you that it is nothing short of amazing. Diigo is a social bookmarking tool. What this means, is that you can bookmark articles, websites, videos and pictures within Diigo, and then you can share them to groups, other people can bookmark them directly from your library, and then... poof! - You have expanded your PLN. Here are some of the things Diigo can do:

Click on this image for more information about Diigo

As an educator, if you sign up with your school email, you can have access to even more features of this great tool. I highly encourage you to check this out.

Twitter:
This one is my favorite PLN because it is quick and easy! I already had a professional Twitter account, so getting started using this as a PLN was simple. If you don't have a professional Twitter account, I would advise that you set one up. It's good to keep your professional and personal Twitter separate. No one is going to take an educator seriously when they follow the Kardashians and Real Housewives on Twitter. You can find my Twitter feed over on the right-hand side of this blog. Feel free to follow me! Now, if you're not all that familiar with Twitter, you may not understand why this makes a great PLN. Well, along with following some other awesome educators, you can take part in Twitter chats about education. This is how they work:

Here is the Official Education Twitter Chat Calendar. I personally like #4thChat for obvious reasons!

There are plenty more PLNs for you to try out. Here are a few that I like:

EduTopia (Education-focused links to articles, videos, blogs, etc.)

GoodReads (For finding and discussing books as a teacher or as a class - can set up book clubs)

ProTeacher (Very organized and easy to find what you are looking for - like a giant teacher's lounge)

Pinterest (Can create boards for specific topics and subjects, share and follow other educators)

Instagram (Follow educators and Edu blogs for quick links to articles)

The most important thing is to find a Personal Learning Network that interests you and that you think you'll be able to have the most interaction with. The point is not just to get information, but to share, as well! Happy learning!

New Class, New Tools

I am currently taking another online tech class and already learning about some helpful tools that I can use in the classroom. I love when I can learn about a tool and immediately apply it!

So, I'll be honest here, I don't tend to follow a lot of blogs. Teaching full time, working on my masters, and raising four kiddos doesn't leave me a whole lot of time to peruse the web at my leisure. There has to be an answer for all of us busy people who would really benefit from keeping up with blogs about how to stay organized, right? There is!

Feedly:
This is the one-stop-shop for all of your blog following needs. Feedly compiles all of the latest blog posts from your favorite blogs in one place so that you don't have to spend your time visiting each blog individually. Here's an example of what it looks like.

I have mine in "cards view" because I'm a visual person, but there are two other view options, as well. The "title only" view looks more like an email inbox. You can click on the post directly in Feedly, and a preview of the post comes up. Within the preview, you can click to open up the whole post from the poster's blog site, or you can save or share directly from the preview window.

So what if you don't know what blogs to follow? You can search by topics or blog titles directly in Feedly. This is a huge time saver! Give Feedly a shot. You can sign up using your Google account (another thing I love as a busy teacher/mom -  Who can remember 17,893 passwords, anyway?!).

If this is not the RSS reader that you are looking for, this site has reviews for a few more, and you can pick what works best for you.

Any way you slice it, an RSS reader can help a teacher stay up-to-date with what's going on in education through educational blogs. Here are a few that I follow:

The Thinking Stick
Classroom Freebies
Organized Classroom
The Curriculum Corner 456 (They divide their blog between primary and intermediate grades)
Growing a STEM Classroom
The Nerdy Teacher

Adobe Spark:
Do you ever wonder how people get those cool, Pinterest-worthy images at the top of their blogs? Well, it's possible that they are using Adobe Spark!

As you can see from the video, there are many uses. I am going to use this in my classroom for the visual storytelling feature through video. Here's an example of what it can do:

The Three Little Pigs

The image at the top of this blog post and my blog title were created as "posts" on Adobe Spark, as well. Students could each design a post to share a concept, and then add it to a class Google Slide presentation. This would be useful a the beginning of the year so that students can introduce themselves to each other in a fun, artistic way. In my online class, we each created a post with an inspirational quote.

I'll leave you with mine.